Who is Freddie Flintoff?

Flintoff was first nicknamed Freddie by John Stanworth, the captain of Lancashire's second XI, when he was a teenager because his name was similar to Fred Flinstone.

Andrew Flintoff hardly played cricket at his school, Ribbleton Hall High school, but played alongside his father and elder brother at Harris Park, and then joined St Anne's and batted number three in the year they won the league.

At 16, Andrew Flintoff was snapped up by David Lloyd, then Lancashire's coach. His first class debut came against Hampshire in August 1995. It was not good. He scored 7 and a duck and he dropped 5 catches!

The right-handed all-rounder made his test debut on 23 July 1998 against South Africa at Nottingham.

But in spite of his natural talent Andrew Flintoff's cricketing career took a while to take off. He was overweight and unfit. Dropped from the England team in 2001 he determined to get into shape and dropped about two stone to around 16.5 stone.

Flintoff used the services of former Great Britain rugby league international Steve Hampson to help him improve his fitness.

It worked and by 2003 Flintoff was justifying his reputation as a big-hitter and a dangerous bowler.

But it was in 2004 that Andrew Flintoff really motored. He was named Man of the Series in England's 4-0 whitewash of the West Indies in the summer (the home leg), and was voted Player of the Year by the Professional Cricketers' Association in September 2004.

Flintoff was also on stunning form in the one day internationals and was made ICC's One-Day Player of the Year in 2004. He had notched up 551 runs at the amazing average of 78.71 in one-day internationals and also took 12 wickets at an average of 20.50.

In April 2005, Andrew Flintoff playing his first Championship match in nearly two years due to injury and test duties. In the first innings for Lancashire against Worcestershire he scored a duck, but an 83 which included 4 sixes signalled that Flintoff was regaining form and fitness.

In the second test of the 2005 Ashes series, Freddie Flintoff came up with an incredible performance in England's nail-biting victory over Australia.

Man of the match, Flintoff scored an exciting 73 in England's meagre second innings total of 182 and then helped whittle out Australia with 4-79.

England went on to win the 2005 Ashes and Flintoff was named as man of the series.

Freddie was made BBC Sports Personality of the Year, 2005.

Flintoff was also named as Wisden's world's number one player in 2005.

Freddie Flintoff said: "I watched the Ashes as a kid and to be involved in it and play a major role in an England victory has been unbelievable".

Flintoff and his wife Rachael have a daughter Holly and live in Knutsford, Cheshire. In March 2006 they had a son, Corey, whilst Flintoff was in India captaining England - a role he took on when Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick were unavailable for selection. Flintoff guided England to a tied series 1-1.

Freddie Flintoff came seventh in The Independent's list of Britain's happiest people.

In September 2006, despite some worries over his fitness after his ankle injury, Andrew Flintoff was named as England's captain for the Ashes in Australia in the winter.

The Australians won the Ashes back and worse was to follow for Flintoff when he was sacked as vice-captain in the World Cup in March 2007 after reports that he fell off a pedalo after drinking heavily in the early hours of the morning after England's first match defeat to New Zealand.

Later in 2007, injury kept Andrew Flintoff out of the Tests against West Indies and, in October 2007, it was revealed that Andrew Flintoff is unlikely to play for England until summer 2008 after another ankle operation.

In July 2008, Andrew Flintoff was named in the 12-man squad for England's second Test against South Africa. It was 18 months since his last Test appearance.